Happy Easter to my PEEPS!

School has been a whirlwind since I last posted but I wanted to share a quick and easy classroom Easter Egg hunt idea I had with you. Last year I purchased these adorable refillable, plastic Easter eggs from my local Dollar Tree. They have been sitting in my cupboard for over year. I knew I would find something to do with them!  

I decided to make up a little Easter egg hunt for my class this year. When they come back to school on Tuesday morning, they will find that I have hidden Easter eggs all over the classroom. Did I fill the eggs with chocolate? jelly beans? NOPE! I filled each egg with a math question. When the students find the egg, they will open it, complete the math question and record their answer on the sheet provided and bring it to me to check. If the answer is correct, they will hide the egg again and find a new one.  I have hidden 30 eggs, but you could make and hide as many as you want.

I made up a little editable PDF so you could quickly type in your own questions (they don't have to be math questions, they can be anything you want). Print these off, cut them up and put them inside the eggs you already have (or are going to buy on clearance tomorrow since Easter will be over!). Tuesday morning, quickly hide them around your classroom and be ready for the fun to begin. I am going to give each child some sort of small (think jelly beans) candy for each correct answer, and perhaps have a larger prize for those who manage to find and correctly answer all the questions. It will all depend on what I can find on sale tomorrow after Easter is over.

When you open the file you will see blue boxes.  Just type whatever you want into the boxes.  Be sure to save under a new file name so you keep your original clear, in case you want to create new questions next year.  

You can grab this FREEBIE by clicking on the image below.  

What works in upper elementary? APEC

In Ontario, students write the EQAO assessments of mathematics and language in grades three and six. I have been a grade six teacher for the majority of my career and have been through many, many years of student testing. One thing I noticed over the years was that students did not come to me in sixth grade knowing how to answer open ended, extended response questions. Students find questions like this on the CASI reading assessments as well.

I started looking for ways to help increase student understanding of how to structure a good response.  A "mentor" for responding to open ended, extended response questions.  Students will find these types of questions in both language and mathematics.  For example, from the 2013 EQAO reading test "Explain why the narrator states that “The only ice cube I want to see again is the one in my glass of juice.” Use specific details from the text to support your answer." and from the mathematics test "A store has 11.2 kg of potatoes. Maria buys 572 g of potatoes from the store and Colin buys 1.42 kg of potatoes from the store. 

After these two purchases, how many grams of potatoes does the store have left? Show your work."

After introducing APEC at my school, many of the teachers in my school have started teaching it.  Even though most of the students coming to me are familiar with this structure, I still spend time each year modelling how to use APEC as an effective method for responding to open ended, extended response questions (including problem solving in mathematics).

Recently someone on Facebook commented that they were marking EQAO and that the coordinators of the marking told them that the "connection" part some students were including was "irrelevant" and that student should NOT be taught to respond by making connections.  I went on record stating that I did not agree with this stance.  If you look at the reading curriculum in Ontario, you will see "making connections" is a HUGE part of the reading expectation 1.6 "extending understanding".  I agree that students need to master how to "make inferences about text using stated and implied ideas from the text" but they also need to EXTEND their thinking, and this is what expectation 1.6 asks them to do. 

I model how to write effective responses all year long.  Whether it is as descriptive feedback after students write CASI in the fall, or during literature response groups, I make sure that we look at how to "show what we know" by constructing strong responses.

I have written about how I use APEC in mathematics before. If you would like to read more about it you can view it at this post.

When I was reading the Facebook posts about using APE (or ACE, or APEC) I started looking for my APEC freebie I had posted a few years ago.  I could NOT find it anywhere, so I decided to make some new cute posters for my classroom.  If you have read my profile, you will know I am the proud owner of two beautiful Boston Terriers, so I included the adorable Boston Terrier clip art created by Scrappin Doodles on my new posters.

If you would like a copy of this FOREVER FREEBIE just click on the image below.

 

How do you teach students to improve their responses in math and language?  I am always looking for fresh, new and effective ideas.

Changing things up....Wonder.

  January is passing by at a breakneck speed. Hopefully the weather will improve, as will my situation.  Despite all the ups and downs outside of school, my class has been doing some fun and interesting things (at least I think they are fun and interesting).  I really wanted my students to read a new novel this year.  In the past I have posted about the novel "Airborn" which we read each year in my grade six class.  I felt that this year we needed to change it up a bit.  I did some on line research and decided that the book "Wonder" by author R.J. Palacio would be a good choice for my class.  

About WONDER

The publisher's description:

"August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?" 

I love using literature circles with my students.  I have used a variety of models for this over the years, but this year I decided that my class would participate in Depth and Complexity Literature Circles.  

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO TO TPT TO READ MORE OR TO PURCHASE FOR YOURSELF

Sandra Kaplan is best known for her work in depth and complexity with gifted students.  Depth includes the following: language of the discipline, big idea, essential details, rules, patterns, trends, unanswered questions, ethics.

Complexity is comprised of the following: change over time, multiple points of view, across the disciplines.  To learn more about the work of Dr.Kaplan and the use of the symbols for Depth and Complexity, click HERE.

The students have been reading the novel and meeting in literature circle groups comprised of 4 students each week.  I give students time in class to read the novel and to prepare for the literature circle role they have chosen for that week.  As well, each week the students have been writing summaries of the reading selections (Wonder doesn't really have traditional chapters) using Tracee Orman's "Twitter Tweet Chapter Summary".  Student's write one summary about the reading selection using on 140 characters (or less) and then they write a second "tweet" taking on the role of one of the characters in the reading selection.  The students love it and I find it really improves their ability to effectively summarize and demonstrate comprehension at the same time.

Click on the image above to download your own FREE copy from Tracee's store.

I have used several other resources to support our in depth reading of Wonder.  

Click on the image or HERE to go to Coach's Corner

Click HERE to visit Nicholas Reitz's store.

Click HERE to visit Jean Martin's store

I have to admit that I love the messages in the novel.  They are "universal truths" which the author R.J. Palacio refers to in the novel as "precepts" or rules to live by.  Mr. Brown, Auggie's English teacher uses these "precepts" in his classroom and they are sprinkled throughout the novel to help shape the emotional tone of the reading.

"When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind."~Dr. Wayne Dyet

"Your deeds are your monuments." ~Inscription on ancient Egyptian tomb

"Have no friends not equal to yourself."~Confucius

"Fortune favors the bold." ~Virgil

"No man is an island, entire of itself." ~John Donne

"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers." ~James Thurber

"Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much."   ~Blaise Pascal

"What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful." ~Sappho

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can."  ~John Wesley

"Just follow the day and reach for the sun." ~The Polyphonic Spree

"Everyone deserves a standing ovation because we all overcometh the world." ~Auggie Pullman

In order to remind my students of the precept of KINDNESS, I created a bookmark.   I printed these in colour on card stock then cut them out and laminated them.    If you would like your own FREE copy of the bookmark to share with your class just click on the image below.

DOWNLOAD YOUR OWN FREEBIE BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGE ABOVE.

Last week we used the on line program Tagxedo to create character trait portraits of the characters from the novel.  I found an excellent PDF tutorial for using Tagxedo HERE.  My students are going to create portraits for four or five characters from the novel and then we are going to use those to make a portrait collage using Picasa.  

This is the sample portrait of August I created while demonstrating how to use the program.

After we are finished with the Tagxedo portraits, the students will be creating imaginary movie trailers using our school Ipads and Imovie.  The students will write the script, create the props and then record the final product.  I am hoping to have these completed in time for our character education assembly later this spring.   I love when we can integrate drama, media literacy and language arts!

 

I find that reading novels such as this one help me to put my worries and problems in perspective. It seemed like choosing this novel was meant to be, for the process of reading it has helped me to remember that everyone has troubles, and more importantly that some of the youngest members of society have the most to teach us about the daily struggle of being human. 

Have you read Wonder?  What are your ideas for using it with your class?

Back to School Freebie from Teachingisagift at Tools for Schools

Back to School Freebie from Teachingisagift at Tools for Schools

Well it's Friday my bloggy buddies!  Some of you have been back to school for a week or more now.  I am finally facing the reality that next week is my last week of freedom for the summer. I am going into my classroom on Monday to try and get it put back together and looking fantastic for the first day of school, September 3rd.  

My summer has been unsettling to say the least. The sudden death of my mother and the subsequent chaos surrounding it has left me feeling drained and depleted.  Not the best way to feel when you are about to face a room full of energetic 6th graders!  I have kept myself "distracted" this summer with blogging a little, playing games on FB a LOT, and opening a new store on the ePals site Tools for Schools.  

I have uploaded a few things into my my new store and if you would like to check it out and download a NEW FREEBIE then click on the image below.

{click on image above}

My new Freebie is a pencil holder...yes, you read that right, you can turn a lovely piece of paper into a pencil holder for the first day of school. I explain in the instructions that come with this freebie that you copy it onto heavy paper, card stock works best, and then you make a slits in each little yellow star for the pencil to slide through. You cut around the top of the stars and then fold the page in three.  This makes a standing card. Slide the pencil through the slots and VOILA a cute little card to welcome your students back to class!  

I had to experiment a little with the first one I made, but once I had it, it was super easy to assemble and it looked great, even when I printed it in black and white (I don't have a colour printer at home).  Hope you LOVE it and that you have a fantastic first day, or continue to have a fantastic first month!  

{Click on image to visit Freebie Friday}

Be sure to stop by Freebie Friday from TBA and pick up more back to school goodies.  My bloggy buddy Kristy from 2PeasandaDog has a great Back to School Bingo product featured today!

It's also Share the Wealth Saturday at An Educator's Life so hop on over there and check out more great freebies!

Math Must Read Mentor Texts

Teachingisagift is again linking up with Stacia and Amanda at Collaboration Cuties for Must Read Mentor Texts.  I love how writing these posts makes me think about my favourite books and then write about how I use them in my classroom!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VISIT COLLABORATION CUTIES MUST READ MENTOR TEXTS.

Many years ago I came across the book "A Grain of Rice" by Helena Clare-Pittman.  I was intrigued by the story and I loved that it linked to mathematics.  

The book is a simple variation on the old grains on a chessboard example of exponential growth.  As a reward for concocting a potion which saved the life of the princess, humble farmer Pong Lo asks for the Emperor's daughter's hand in marriage.  The Emperor is willing to offer Pong Lo anything he wishes, except for the hand of his daughter, the princess.  

Pong Lo then surprises the Emperor by making a basic request. He asks for a single grain of rice doubled every day for 100 days. The Emperor is baffled, yet he complies.  He soon discovers that Pong Lo uses his math skills and ingenuity to make all his wishes come true.

From Helena Clare Pittman's website:

"The peasant, Pong Lo, falls in love with the princess, Chang Wu, presenting, of course, the problem of class, for starters. But this peasant is "more than a little" clever, gifted and determined. With the conviction of love in his heart he defies tradition and common sense, becoming indispensable to the workings of the emperor's palace, and dear to emperor's love of good food and to his daughter's heart. The story unfolds from there and rests on Pong Lo's wit, and knowledge of arithmetic progression. This book has been in print since 1986, used in school curriculums since 1994, and is a love story on a royal scale."

This story is a great introductory lesson to the patterning and algebra strand in the Ontario Curriculum for mathematics.  I also like to use it prior to this lesson I wrote about INTERACTIVE MATH NOTEBOOKS.  The mathematical focus for this lesson the exponential growth of the powers of 2.

Prior to reading the story, I ask the students to consider this question: "Would you rather have $0.10 each day for 10 days or would you rather receive a penny on the first day and double that amount everyday for 10 days?   I allow students to think about the question but not give me any responses at this point.

I then begin to read the story and stop on the page where Pong Lo asks for a grain of rice which will double every day for one hundred days.

I then revisit the question I posed about the money.   With a partner I ask the students to determine how much money they would receive, depending on which decision they made.  We debrief the strategies used, and the answers the students come up with.  I like to use this as a bit of a diagnostic assessment of strategies students use.

I then ask the students to determine how much rice Pong-Lo would have at the end of 100 days. Again they work with their partners.  I like to use the KWC (Know, Want to Know and Conditions) model to have students work on the problem in partners.  I have them go through each step included in the table you see below.

K:  What do I KNOW?  Based on the problem, I know that...

W:  What do I WANT to do, find, or figure out? I am trying to find or figure out...

C: CONDITIONS.  Are there are special conditions? (e.g. that Pong Lo requests a single of grain rice which doubles each day for 100 days)

Next I use the APEC sheet to have students work through the process to come up with a reasonable answer.  

There is no right or wrong way for the students to use the table, but they must fill out all sections.  I find that gifted students often are able to come up with the correct answer but they cannot show how they know they are correct, and they have trouble explaining their thinking and/or making connections.  Using APEC gets my students thinking about the entire problem solving process and how the concepts they have been learning about connect to other math concepts, to themselves and to the world around them.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO DOWNLOAD
YOUR OWN FREE COPY.

Prior to finishing the story but after the students are finished working on the problem they share their thinking, discuss the process and the answer.

I then finish reading the story to the students and we talk about what that much rice would look like. How would Pong Lo store it all?  What could he store it in?   Exploring a variety of measurement concepts are a natural extension to these questions.

Another extension I have used with my students is to have them create their own story related to the concept, powers of 2.  This can be used as an excellent cross curricular connection to language arts, visual arts and technology.

Head over to Collaboration Cuties now to read about more great Must Have Mentor texts!

Figurative Language Bookmarks Manic Monday FREEBIE

Welcome to another Manic Monday!  I made these Figurative Language bookmarks awhile ago when I was trying out some new techniques using Powerpoint to make printables.  

As you have already noticed, I am also obsessed with all things chalkboard.  I forgot I had uploaded them until I came across them the other day.  They had been downloaded hundreds of times, without my needing a blog post!  

I decided they would make a great Manic Monday Freebie as many of my bloggy buddies south of the border are getting ready for Back to School.  Warm up your colour printers and laminators!

I find that while teaching reading, it is important to refer to the different types of figurative language frequently.  I have poster sets up on bulletin boards in my classroom, but I found giving my students different bookmarks during the year was also helpful.  

Print on cardstock, cut in half and laminate!  EASY!

Click on either image to download for FREE

Are you following this blog on Bloglovin?  Be sure to link up YOUR OWN BLOG at the Back to School with Bloglovin Blog Hop sponsored by Teachingisagift and A Teacher Without a Class.  Click on the IMAGE below to link up your blog and hop along to find other great new blogs to follow!

Looking for a great book to read aloud to your students for back to school?  Read my post about the THREE QUESTIONS by clicking on this beautiful picture by author John Muth.